Hamstring injury made Peterson 'hesitant'

Adrian Peterson revealed today that nagging hamstring tightness in recent weeks caused him to be hesitant when running the ball.

Peterson said he bruised his right hamstring about five weeks ago. That gradually caused some tightness, which affected the way he ran in recent games.

"I feel like it was definitely hurting a little bit," he said. "I feel like it was more in my mind. It’s strange to say that, but I think I was kind of holding myself back, not being able to stretch out and really run. I think I was kind of hindering myself. Now that I’m able to be more relaxed and got a clearer mind, I think I’ll be able to go out there and go full-speed.”

Peterson said he alerted coaches and the medical staff last week that he was having a problem with his hamstring.

"It was something that I’ve been dealing with for about 4-5 weeks," he said."The way that it came on wasn’t like a normal hamstring, like a tweak or anything like that. It kind of gradually became sore, kind of climbed up from the bottom of my hamstring, up to the middle. I didn’t really know what was wrong, but I’m feeling good now. I’ve been doing a lot of work with [head athletic trainer] Eric Sugarman and his staff. They’ve been keeping me in the training room, keeping me ready.”

Peterson had only 23 carries combined in back-to-back losses to Carolina and New York Giants. He said he doesn't believe the coaches limited his workload because of his hamstring.

"They didn’t know anything about it until maybe like last week," he said. "That’s when I really felt, OK, I’m starting to feel something now that could slow me down a little bit. I really didn’t say anything to those guys until like last week. Just told them there’s tightness. It’s more so when I run, I was kind of hesitant to stretch out and really stretch the hamstring, thinking that I was going to pull [it]. So that’s how I kind of had it in my mind. But that had nothing to do with the coaches decisions."

Asked for his ideal number of carries in a game, Peterson didn't hesitate.

"100" he said.

Matt Vensel is in his first year at the Star Tribune after covering the Ravens for the Baltimore Sun for six years. He is a Pittsburgh native and a Penn State grad. Follow him at @mattvensel.

Mark Craig has covered the NFL for 23 years, and the Vikings since 2003 for the Star Tribune. He is one of 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. Follow him at @markcraignfl.

Master Tesfatsion is the Star Tribune’s digital Vikings writer. He is a 2013 graduate of Arizona State and worked for mlb.com before arriving in Minneapolis. Follow him at @masterstrib.